Editorial: Fight over closing schools will be a hot one

Thursday night's special unified school board meeting added an exclamation point to what already has been demonstrated: The board is facing a heck of assault from supporters of schools set to be closed.

After impassioned and, sometimes, angry words from opponents of the closings, the board approved a proposal to close Gordon Elementary, which is in the process of being converted to a charter school under the state-managed Achievement School District, in North Memphis' Smoky City neighborhood.

The board also approved the closing of Coro Lake and White's Chapel in Southwest Memphis; Orleans in the Parkway-Lauderdale area of South Memphis; Norris Elementary near Elvis Presley Boulevard and Norris Road in South Memphis, and Humes Middle near Jackson and Thomas in North Memphis.

Humes would be re-purposed as an optional school with a focus on the performing arts.

The board's decisions aren't final. They set in motion a process that includes a series of public hearings on the matter that will be held early next year, in which opponents and supporters of the closings will get a final shot at convincing the board to either stick with the plan or change their minds.

As Bette Davis said in the movie "All about Eve," the board members better "fasten (their) seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night," or to be more precise, bumpy hearings. Even school board members strongly disagree among themselves about the closings.

Still, here is the point that must not be lost on board members. The end game is to steel their backs against the public onslaught and make the final decision on closing schools from the standpoint of what is going to be the best outcome for students.

The Transition Planning Commission laid out a list of 172 recommendations for the merger of Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools into one unified district, which is set to begin operation in August. The recommendations include closing more than 20 schools to save money. Many of the schools are underutilized.

MCS superintendent Kriner Cash is sensitive to what closing a school can mean to a neighborhood. He cautioned against closing too many schools. He also pointed out that closing schools does not necessarily save money.

The unified school board may not close any schools at the end of the school year, kicking this can down the road until other pressing recommendations, such as outsourcing transportation and custodial services, are resolved.

But, whenever the decision on closings is made, the question that has to be answered is whether students in underutilized schools will be shortchanged when it comes to resources available to other students. If they are, is it cost efficient to try to provide those resources to smaller schools?